The Next Strike
by Running For Anothers Dream
Summary: When their parents are captured by a mysterious mare, it's up to the children of the original Elements to save But can these young mares find a way to work together? Can they find a way to find themselves? Or will the Stars finally win control of Equestria?


A/N: Alright, everyone! Welcome to the first chapter of The Next Strike! It was won by Celia, in the Equestria: A Contest, and I really hope that she likes it!

* * *

"Ruby? What are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash blinks, eyes taking in the deep red filly on her bed. "Better yet, how'd you get in my house?"

Ruby just shrugs, looks up at the pegasus with big green eyes. "The key was under the matt, and I just didn't want to be at home anymore."

The former Wonderbolt gives a loud sigh, and she hates when this happens. Hates that she has to clean up Rarity's mess, and that Ruby has chosen her to latch onto.

Doesn't feel even a little complimented.

Not at all.

Which is why she sits down on the bed next to Ruby, letting a wing rest on the younger mare's shoulders. "She just worries about you."

"No," mutters Ruby, leaning against Rainbow Dash. "She just wants to dress me up and show me off."

Silence.

Rainbow Dash cannot think of an arguement. So she just sighs and holds Ruby close and tells her that everything will work out - eventually

eventually

eventually.

And all the while, she finds another reason to hate Rarity.

-x-x-x-

"I'm telling you, Fluttershy, her daughter thinks she hates her!" says Rainbow Dash, throwing her hooves up in the air. The action nearly topples her cup of tea, and Fluttershy's gaze follows the tilting

spinning

moving glass for a long moment before she speaks. "Rarity doesn't hate Ruby," she says, words soft and slow. "She's just trying to do what she thinks is best for her."

"Well she sucks at it," snaps Rainbow Dash, reaching out and stilling the teacup. Dark liquid splashes over the side, staining the white table cloth beneath. Neither mare mentions it though, even though they both stare at it and then at each other.

Fluttershy tries to smile, but it's stilted and forced, so hard to do in these current years. "When Rarity was younger, all she wanted was to be pampered. She's just trying to do the same for her children."

"Ruby doesn't want to be pampered," argues Rainbow Dash, and it's as though she is talking to Rarity herself instead of to Fluttershy.

The light pegasus' eyes soften, and it's a sad look indeed. Filled with longing and want and sorrow, like so many years ago when she would converse with the wind. "Sometimes, a parent does what they think is best, even if it's wrong for their child. Rarity's still learning, Dashie. We all are."

Rainbow Dash snorts, slouching down in her seat. "I don't need to learn anything, and neither do you. You're a great mom!"

Fluttershy doesn't answer. Instead, she changes the subject onto her friends job.

-x-x-x-

She is not kind.

Not in the same way as her mother, in the way that she stands there and lets other ponies push her around - all because she is different? Because two horns curl from her head and her tail is made of scales instead of hair? Because her father is not one of them?

All of those things and more, and Chaotic Jewel will not sit there and take it. Not anymore. Not after so many years of putting up with it and gaining nothing.

So she lashes out. With words

hooves

and magic.

She tries so hard to show those other ponies that she cannot be picked on, that she will not be picked on, and her mother watches from a distance and wonders if staying true to her heart was worth the curse she has given her daughter.

Fluttershy cannot help but wonder if it was worth Chaos.

-x-x-x-

"Come on, Thunderbolt! You can go quicker than that, can't you?" chides Misty Fly, hooves pounding against the ground even as she looks up at her sister.

The dark blue mare is zipping through the sky, paying no attention to the small twigs and branches that get caught in her mane and snag at her tail as she flies under them

over them

through them, wings beating faster and faster with every breath. She grins down at Misty Fly but doesn't speak, because that breaks desperately needed concentration.

They are evenly matched, after all. The two sisters race side by side, even though they aren't on the same level of ground. One in the air and one on the earth and they are both fast - faster then anyone else their age.

Misty Fly laughs and kicks her heels up in the air, bursting forward and past Thunderbolt. Over a fallen branch and under a low hanging pine limb, never minding the dirt that sprayed up from her hooves and coated her legs.

For a moment, brief and fleeting, she is pure speed. Then, she slows herself and lets her younger sister take the lead.

-x-x-x-

"Milk, eggs, bread, and butter," mutters Lemon Lime, head down as she walks through the street of Ponyville. "Milk, eggs, bread, and butter. Milk, eggs, bre-"

"Hey, Lemon Lime! Hey, hey, hey!" chirps a low voice from behind the light yellow mare. "Over here!"

"Milk, eggs, lemon, and butter. Wait, no, that's not right. Dag nabbit, Cherry!" snaps Lemon Lime, spinning around to eye her friend through the open bakery window. "Now ya gone and made me forget my list!"

"Oh no! I am so, so sorry, Lemon!" apologizes Cherry Crisp, her face falling. "I didn't mean to mess you up. I guess...do you want to just come back later when you aren't busy and I'll tell you the really cool, awesome, amazing news then?"

Lemon Lime pauses, really considering it for a moment. Then a grin breaks across her face and she trots over to the window, letting the sweet scent of baked goods soothe her easily rumpled mood. "Alright, alright, yah got me. I already done and forgot what I needed to pick up anyway, so why don't yah just tell me now?"

Cherry Crisp leans forward, until her muzzle is close to Lemon Lime's ear, before giving a conspiratol whisper. "I heard that we're getting a new student tomorrow and that it's a girl and we know her from somewhere and, oh, you just have to guess who it is!"

Lemon Lime frowns, running through the ponies the she knows and the ponies that her family knows. The list is long though and, after a moment of thinking, she shrugs. "I dunno, Cherry. S'it a friend of ours?"

Her only answer is an excited squeel.

-x-x-x-

"Alright class," says Silver Spoon, tapping one hoof against the wooden floor to catch her students attention. They fall silent almost immidiately, all eyes turning onto their teacher. "I have a very important announcement for you today."

At the far back of the room, Cherry Crisp and Lemon Lime bounce in their seats and trade excited glances. They know who it is, cannot wait to see their young friend, and completely ignore the look that Silver Spoon sends theirs way.

"I see that at least some of our students are excited over this," she says, unamused. Then the corners of her lips twist up just slightly, offering her class a rare but pretty smile. "That's good, because our new student could use some welcoming. She's been home-schooled since she was very young, and I want everyone to help her find her way around."

Before any squeels could be given or news spoiled, the door to the classroom opens wide. A small pegasus walks into the room, with a leery look in her light blue eyes. She has the same eyes as her mother and the horns of her father and not a single pony welcomes her into the classroom for a very long moment.

Then Silver Spoon clears her throat, the smile gone from her face, and Cherry Crisp gives an excited wave.

"Jewel! Jewel! Over here! Look! There's an empty seat right here beside me, you should come sit here!" calls Cherry Crisp, grinning.

When nopony else except for Lemon Lime welcomes her to the class, Chaotic Jewel's ears droop and her expression grows sour. She is disappointed but not surprised, because she has met most of these fillies and colts before in town and they have never treated her any differently.

She did not expect being in a school to change how they saw her.

-x-x-x-

"You shouldn't let them bother you," says Moonlight Shimmer, softly. She offers her friend a soft smile, leading the pony out of the schoolhouse and over to the play ground. "And they weren't being really mean, right?"

Chaotic Jewel just snorts and shakes her head, and she can feel the other fillies eyes on her. Can hear the whispers of the colts. Can see how they all scamper away, not even wanting to play near the creature that isn't pony and isn't dragon and isn't normal like they are.

"I mean it, Jewel," says Moonlight Shimmer, brushing her shoulder against Chaotic Jewel's. The other mare's fur is coarse and almost harsh, nothing like the unicorns own smooth coat.

Suddenly, Chaotic Jewel stops and frowns at Moonlight, but the look doesn't quite reach her eyes, which are wide and upset and frightened. "I don't care if they don't like me, Moonlight. It's not like I'm going anywhere...yet."

Yet

yet

yet

later, as soon as she gets the chance. It's something that she has only ever shared with Moonlight Shimmer, her plans to leave as soon as she's old enough. As soon as she's certain that it will not break her mothers heart.

Moonlight just gives her friend a sad smile and hopes that later never comes.

-x-x-x-

"I know, Applejack. Trust me," says Twilight Sparkle, exasperated. "I know exactly what you mean. I really want to start training Moonlight Shimmer, but I don't want to push magic on her."

"What if Lemon Lime don't want ta learn farming?" asks Applejack, her voice close to a whisper even though it is just the two mares in the library. "I don't wanna make her work her hooves off if she wants ta go off and - and be all fancy!"

Twilight nods complete agreement, and she feels like this is the most difficult decision she has made in a very long time. Like this conversation is far more serious then it should be, and maybe she should be smiling but she just can't bring herself to do it.

It would kill her if Moonlight Shimmer didn't want to learn magic.

It would kill Applejack if Lemon Lime didn't want to learn how to farm.

Yet neither can make their children walk the same paths they did, and they know that. They have seen what happens when you do, watch it every day when they see Rarity and Ruby out

argueing

fighting

acting as though they are anything except for mother and daughter, like they wished each other to be different ponies entirely.

They don't want to do that to their children, but they don't want to let go completely either.

-x-x-x-

They still aren't back.

That single realization strikes Ursa to the core, as she slowly lowers her basket of plants to the floor. There are no lights on in her house and there is no sound. Nothing has been moved since early that morning when she first awoke to find herself alone.

"Momma?" she whispers, hoping it is a prank but knowing full well that it isn't. "Papa? Where are you guys?"

There is no answer, save for the howling of the wind outside. The young mare pushes the front door closed behind and turns on the light, letting her eyes rake over the empty house. It is a small thing, just one large room sectioned off by furniture, and she can see it all from the doorway.

Can see how empty it is and how, even with the lights on, it seems dark. Like the night had never left their small house, hanging heavy in the air. It fills every corner and crevice and creeps across the floor, closer

closer

closer to where Ursa is standing, and the young mare screams and stumbles backwards. "Get away from me!"

The shadow creeps closer to her, small flecks of white flickering to life inside of it.

The purple and blue mare backs herself into the closed door, and her eyes are wide with fear. "Stop it! Stop it and give me my parents back!"

It doesn't listen to her.

Ursa hadn't expected it too.

-x-x-x-

"Alright, class. I want everyone to take their seats and be quick about it. We have an assignment to do over the weekend," says Silver Spoon, watching as the young fillies and colts all scamper in from recess.

The bigger ones, the meaner ones, they push their way through the crowd and find seats in the very front row. All bright eyes and confidence and she wonders which of them can be knocked down first? Who needs to be corrected and shown how the real world works?

Then come the rest of the students, and at the far back of them is a small group that she knows all too well and one mare that she does not know nearly well enough. The daughters of ponies who she never gave a chance

who could have been her friends

who she was too desperate to impress and only ended up hurting herself and her own chances. So here, now, Silver Spoon will take up the role she wished that she had seen as a young filly, and opens her mouth to start giving out the pairs -

_Lemon Lime and Fancy Frills _

_Chaotic Jewel and Cherry Crisp_

_Moonlight Shimmer and Dancer_

_Dinky Hooves and Misty Fly_

_Strawberry Berett and Ruby_

_-_when the door to the class room bursts open and a wide-eyed Sweetie Belle appears in the doorway.

"They're gone," she pants. "All of them!"


End file.
